CN110012511B - Dynamic bandwidth adjustment in flexible bandwidth systems - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides methods, systems, and devices for wireless communication for mobility management of wireless communication systems using flexible bandwidth carriers. Some embodiments include: at a User Equipment (UE), a method of determining bandwidth information, such as one or more bandwidth scaling factors N and/or flexible bandwidths, wherein the bandwidth information may not be transmitted to the UE. An embodiment for determining bandwidth information includes: a random order bandwidth scaling factor method, a delayed order bandwidth scaling factor method, a method of storing bandwidth scaling factor values in a UE neighbor record, a spectrum measurement method, a spectrum calculation method, and/or a priori method. Flexible bandwidth carrier systems may use portions of the spectrum that are not wide enough to accommodate normal waveforms. The flexible bandwidth carrier system may be generated by augmenting or reducing the time, frame length, bandwidth, or chip rate of the flexible bandwidth carrier system relative to the normal bandwidth carrier system.

Description

Dynamic bandwidth adjustment in flexible bandwidth systems

The present application is a divisional application of application having application date 2012, 11, 7, application number 201280063542.2, and name "dynamic bandwidth adjustment in flexible bandwidth system".

Cross Reference to Related Applications

This patent application claims priority from provisional application No.61/556,777 entitled "FRACTIONAL SYSTEMS IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS," filed on 7, 11, 2011, which provisional application is assigned to the assignee of the present application and is hereby expressly incorporated by reference herein. This patent application also claims priority from provisional application No.61/568,742 entitled "SIGNAL CAPACITY BOOSTING, COORDINATED FORWARD LINK BLANKING AND POWER BOOSTING, AND REVERSE LINK THROUGHPUT INCREASING FOR FLEXIBLE BANDWIDTH SYSTEMS," filed on 12/9/2011, which is assigned to the assignee of the present application and is hereby expressly incorporated by reference herein. The present patent application also claims priority from provisional application No.61/607,502 entitled "MOBILITY MANAGEMENT FOR FLEXIBLE BANDWIDTH SYSTEMS AND DEVICES," filed 3/6/2012, which provisional application is assigned to the assignee of the present application and is hereby expressly incorporated by reference herein.

Background

Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) systems, frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) systems, 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) systems.

Service providers are typically allocated some blocks of spectrum for exclusive use in certain geographic areas. The administrator typically allocates these frequency blocks regardless of the multiple access technique used. In most cases, these frequency blocks are not integer multiples of the channel bandwidth, so there may be unused portions of the spectrum. As the amount of use of wireless devices increases, the demand for such spectrum, as well as the value of the spectrum, typically increases. However, in some cases, the wireless communication system may not use some portions of the allocated spectrum because these portions are not wide enough to accommodate standard or normal waveforms. For example, developers of the LTE standard recognize this problem and decide to support 6 different system bandwidths (i.e., 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, and 20 MHz). Another approach may be to use a flexible bandwidth carrier system, which may involve a wireless communication system that uses portions of the spectrum that cannot accommodate normal waveforms. However, when using flexible bandwidth carrier systems, different mobility management problems may arise, such as facilitating migration between hybrid legacy and flexible bandwidth carrier systems, or even other flexible bandwidth carrier systems.

Disclosure of Invention

Methods, systems, and devices are provided herein for wireless communication systems using flexible bandwidths. Some embodiments provide mobility management for hybrid legacy and flexible bandwidth systems. Some embodiments include: methods for determining bandwidth information such as bandwidth scaling factor N and/or flexible bandwidth at a User Equipment (UE). In some cases, the bandwidth information may not be transmitted to the UE. Thus, the UE must determine what bandwidth information assumption to use in acquiring and decoding information on a cell, which may be a flexible bandwidth cell, but in some cases, the bandwidth may be a normal bandwidth (i.e., n=1). Different methods that may be used in determining bandwidth information include, but are not limited to: a random order bandwidth scaling factor method, a delayed order bandwidth scaling factor method, a method of storing bandwidth scaling factor values in a UE neighbor record, a spectrum measurement method, a spectrum calculation method, and/or a priori method. Other methods may include: mapping of frequency to bandwidth scaling factor (e.g., in a search mechanism). These methods may also be based on flexible bandwidth rather than bandwidth scaling factors.

A flexible bandwidth carrier system may relate to a wireless communication system that may use flexible waveforms that may use portions of spectrum that are not large enough to accommodate normal waveforms. The flexible bandwidth carrier system may be generated relative to the normal bandwidth carrier system by augmenting the frame length of the flexible bandwidth carrier system or reducing its chip rate relative to the normal bandwidth carrier system. In some embodiments, the flexible bandwidth carrier system may be generated relative to the normal bandwidth carrier system by augmenting the frame length of the flexible bandwidth carrier system or reducing its bandwidth relative to the normal bandwidth carrier system. Some embodiments increase the bandwidth of a flexible waveform by expanding or expanding the chip rate of a flexible bandwidth carrier system. Some embodiments increase the bandwidth of a flexible waveform by reducing the frame length or expanding the bandwidth of a flexible bandwidth carrier system.

Some embodiments include a method for wireless communication, the method may include: at a User Equipment (UE), interpreting a first set of received data; and/or determining, at the UE, bandwidth information associated with a flexible bandwidth carrier using the first set of received data, the bandwidth information comprising a second set of data that is different from the first set of data, wherein the second set of data comprises the bandwidth information.

The bandwidth information may include at least: a bandwidth scaling factor or bandwidth associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier. Some embodiments include: at the UE, using the determined bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier, facilitating mobility management with respect to the flexible bandwidth carrier.

Determining the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: a sequence of bandwidth scaling factors is used to determine a bandwidth scaling factor associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier. The sequence of bandwidth scaling factors may comprise a random sequence of bandwidth scaling factors. The sequence of bandwidth scaling factors may comprise a predetermined sequence of bandwidth scaling factors. The predetermined sequence may include a sequence of incremental bandwidth scaling factors. The predetermined sequence may include: a sequence of bandwidth scaling factors starting with a current bandwidth scaling factor of a cell transmitting the first set of received data. The bandwidth scaling factor sequence may be determined and stored for subsequent use by the UE, set by the manufacturer, set by the operator, or set in the SIM. The predetermined sequence using the bandwidth scaling factor may include: one or more cell searches and blind decoding of flexible bandwidth cells are used based on the bandwidth scaling factor from the predetermined sequence.

Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier is determined using a stored bandwidth scaling factor. Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier is determined using one or more spectral measurements. Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier is determined using one or more spectral calculations. Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier is determined using a priori information about one or more bandwidth scaling factors of the flexible bandwidth carrier.

Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: the bandwidth information associated with one or more flexible bandwidth carriers having one or more bandwidth scaling factors is determined using a priori information about the probability of deploying the flexible bandwidth carriers in a given region. The a priori information may be at least sent to the UE, calculated at the UE and subsequently used, or provided to the UE via a SIM.

Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: the bandwidth information associated with one or more flexible bandwidth carriers having one or more bandwidth scaling factors is determined using a priori information about the probability of deploying the flexible bandwidth carriers in a given region in combination with a predetermined sequence of bandwidth scaling factors.

Facilitating mobility management may include: movement between one flexible bandwidth carrier and another flexible bandwidth carrier of a plurality of flexible bandwidth carriers is facilitated, wherein the flexible bandwidth carriers use the same bandwidth scaling factor. Facilitating mobility management may include: movement between one flexible bandwidth carrier and another flexible bandwidth carrier of a plurality of flexible bandwidth carriers is facilitated, wherein the flexible bandwidth carriers use different bandwidth scaling factors. Facilitating mobility management may include: movement between one flexible bandwidth carrier of the plurality of flexible bandwidth carriers and a normal bandwidth carrier is facilitated.

Some embodiments include a wireless communication system. The system may include: means for interpreting, at a User Equipment (UE), a first set of received data; and/or means for determining, at the UE, bandwidth information associated with a flexible bandwidth carrier using a first set of the received data, the bandwidth information comprising a second set of data that is different from the first set of data, wherein the second set of data comprises the bandwidth information.

The wireless communication system may include: the apparatus further includes means for facilitating mobility management for the flexible bandwidth carrier using the determined bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier at the UE.

The means for determining the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may comprise: means for determining the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier using a random sequence of bandwidth scaling factors. The means for determining the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may comprise: means for determining the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier using a predetermined sequence of bandwidth scaling factors. The predetermined sequence may include an increasing sequence of bandwidth scaling factors. The predetermined sequence may include: a sequence of bandwidth scaling factors starting with a current bandwidth scaling factor of a cell transmitting the first set of received data. The means for using the predetermined sequence of bandwidth scaling factors may comprise: means for using one or more cell searches and blind decoding of flexible bandwidth cells based on the bandwidth scaling factor from the predetermined sequence.

The means for determining the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may comprise: means for determining the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier using a stored bandwidth scaling factor. The means for determining the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may comprise: means for determining the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier using one or more spectral measurements. The means for determining the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may comprise: means for determining the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier using one or more spectral calculations. The means for determining the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may comprise: means for determining the bandwidth scaling factor associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier using a priori information about one or more bandwidth scaling factors of the flexible bandwidth carrier. The means for determining the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier comprises: means for determining the bandwidth information associated with one or more flexible bandwidth carriers having one or more bandwidth scaling factors using a priori information about the probability of deploying the flexible bandwidth carriers in a given region.

Some embodiments include a computer program product for a wireless communication system, which may include a non-transitory computer-readable medium, which may include: code for interpreting, at a User Equipment (UE), a first set of received data; and/or code for determining, at the UE, bandwidth information associated with a flexible bandwidth carrier using a first set of the received data, the bandwidth information comprising a second set of data that is different from the first set of data, wherein the second set of data comprises the bandwidth information.

The non-transitory computer readable medium may further include: the processor is configured to facilitate mobility management for the flexible bandwidth carrier using the determined bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier at the UE. The code for determining the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: code for determining the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier using a random sequence of bandwidth scaling factors. The code for determining the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: code for determining the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier using a predetermined sequence of bandwidth scaling factors. The predetermined sequence may include an increasing sequence of bandwidth scaling factors. The predetermined sequence may include: a sequence of bandwidth scaling factors starting with a current bandwidth scaling factor of a cell transmitting the first set of received data. The code for using the predetermined sequence of bandwidth scaling factors may include: code for using one or more cell searches and blind decoding of flexible bandwidth cells based on the bandwidth scaling factor from the predetermined sequence.

The code for determining the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: code for determining the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier using stored bandwidth information. The code for determining the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: code for determining the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier using one or more spectral measurements. The code for determining the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: code for determining the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier using one or more spectral calculations. The code for determining the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: code for determining the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier using a priori information about one or more bandwidth scaling factors of the flexible bandwidth carrier. The code for determining the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: code for determining the bandwidth information associated with one or more flexible bandwidth carriers having one or more bandwidth scaling factors using a priori information about the probability of deploying the flexible bandwidth carriers in a given region.

Some embodiments include a wireless communication device that may include at least one processor configured to: at a User Equipment (UE), interpreting a first set of received data; and/or determining, at the UE, bandwidth information associated with a flexible bandwidth carrier using the first set of received data, the bandwidth information comprising a second set of data that is different from the first set of data, wherein the second set of data comprises the bandwidth information. The wireless communication device may further include: at least one memory coupled to the at least one processor.

The at least one processor may be further configured to: at the UE, using the determined bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier, facilitating mobility management with respect to the flexible bandwidth carrier. The at least one processor configured to determine the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may be configured to: the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier is determined using a random sequence of bandwidth scaling factors. The at least one processor configured to determine the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may be configured to: the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier is determined using a predetermined sequence of bandwidth scaling factors. The predetermined sequence may include an increasing sequence of bandwidth scaling factors. The predetermined sequence may include: a sequence of bandwidth scaling factors starting with a current bandwidth scaling factor of a cell transmitting the first set of received data.

The at least one processor configured to use the predetermined sequence of bandwidth scaling factors may be configured to: one or more cell searches and blind decoding of flexible bandwidth cells are used based on the bandwidth scaling factor from the predetermined sequence. The at least one processor configured to determine the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may be configured to: the stored bandwidth information is used to determine the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier. The at least one processor configured to determine the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may be configured to: the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier is determined using one or more spectral measurements. The at least one processor configured to determine the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may be configured to: the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier is determined using one or more spectral calculations. The at least one processor configured to determine the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may be configured to: the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier is determined using a priori information about one or more bandwidth scaling factors of the flexible bandwidth carrier. The at least one processor configured to determine the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may be configured to: the bandwidth information associated with one or more flexible bandwidth carriers having one or more bandwidth scaling factors is determined using a priori information about the probability of deploying the flexible bandwidth carriers in a given region. The at least one processor configured to determine the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may be configured to: the bandwidth information associated with one or more flexible bandwidth carriers having one or more bandwidth scaling factors is determined using a priori information about the probability of deploying the flexible bandwidth carriers in a given region in combination with a predetermined sequence of bandwidth scaling factors.

In some embodiments, facilitating mobility management includes: movement between one flexible bandwidth carrier and another flexible bandwidth carrier of a plurality of flexible bandwidth carriers is facilitated, wherein the flexible bandwidth carriers use the same bandwidth information to determine the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier. Facilitating mobility management may include: movement between one flexible bandwidth carrier and another flexible bandwidth carrier of a plurality of flexible bandwidth carriers is facilitated, wherein the flexible bandwidth carriers use different bandwidth scaling factors to determine the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier. Facilitating mobility management may include: movement between one flexible bandwidth carrier of a plurality of flexible bandwidth carriers and a normal bandwidth carrier is facilitated to determine the bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier.

The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technical advantages of examples according to the present invention in order that the detailed description that follows may be better understood. Other features and advantages of the invention will be described below. The concepts and specific examples disclosed may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention. Such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the appended claims. The features which are believed to be characteristic of the concepts disclosed herein, both as to their organization and method of operation, together with the associated advantages will be better understood from the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying figures. Each of these drawings is provided for purposes of illustration and description only and is not intended as a definition of the limits of the invention.

Drawings

A further understanding of the nature and advantages of the present invention may be realized by reference to the following drawings. In the drawings, like components or features have the same reference numerals. Furthermore, individual components of the same type may be distinguished by following the reference label by a dashed line and a second label that distinguishes among the similar components. If only the first reference label is used in the specification, the description may be applied to any one of the similar components having the same first reference label, regardless of the second reference label.

Fig. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a wireless communication system in accordance with various embodiments;

fig. 2A illustrates an example of a wireless communication system in which a flexible waveform adapts to a portion of the spectrum that is not wide enough to fit a normal waveform, in accordance with various embodiments;

fig. 2B illustrates an example of a wireless communication system in which a flexible waveform is adapted to a portion of a spectrum near an edge of a frequency band, in accordance with various embodiments;

fig. 3 illustrates a block diagram of a wireless communication system in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 4 shows a block diagram depicting a mobility management process, in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 5 illustrates a table including a number of mobility management scenarios in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 6A illustrates a flow diagram in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 6B illustrates a flow diagram in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 7 illustrates a spectrogram diagram in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 8 illustrates a communication diagram in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 9 illustrates a block diagram of a seed device, in accordance with various embodiments;

fig. 10 illustrates a block diagram of a user device in accordance with various embodiments;

fig. 11 illustrates a block diagram of a wireless communication system in accordance with various embodiments;

fig. 12 illustrates a block diagram of a wireless communication system including a base station and a user equipment, in accordance with various embodiments;

fig. 13A illustrates a flow chart of a method of wireless communication in accordance with various embodiments;

fig. 13B illustrates a flow chart of a method of wireless communication in accordance with various embodiments.

Detailed Description

Methods, systems, and devices are provided for a wireless communication system using flexible bandwidth. Some embodiments provide for: mobility management for hybrid legacy and flexible bandwidth systems. Some embodiments include: methods for determining bandwidth information, such as bandwidth scaling factor N and/or flexible bandwidth, at a User Equipment (UE). In some cases, the bandwidth information may not be transmitted to the UE. As a result, the UE must determine which bandwidth information assumption to use in acquiring and decoding information on a cell, which may be a flexible bandwidth cell, but in some cases it may be a normal bandwidth (i.e., n=1). Different methods that may be used in determining bandwidth information include, but are not limited to: a random order bandwidth scaling factor method, a delayed order bandwidth scaling factor method, a method of storing bandwidth scaling factor values in a UE neighbor record, a spectrum measurement method, a spectrum calculation method, and/or a priori method. Other methods may include: mapping of frequency to bandwidth scaling factor (e.g., in some search mechanism). In some cases, these different methods may be performed in parallel or in series. Furthermore, these methods may also be based on flexible bandwidth instead of bandwidth scaling factors.

Some embodiments include one or more flexible bandwidth carrier networks that are designed for low data rate applications and may also be used for soft reframing scenarios. In hybrid legacy and flexible bandwidth carrier deployments (e.g., GSM, UMTS, and flexible bandwidth carrier networks), multimode flexible bandwidth UEs are able to migrate between these networks. Embodiments address different problems that may occur in these hybrid systems, including but not limited to: with respect to the impact of mobility management procedures when deploying flexible bandwidth carriers or cells in a network with existing systems (e.g., UMTS or GSM); and/or network signaling of information about flexible bandwidth carriers or cells for flexible bandwidth UEs.

A flexible bandwidth carrier system may relate to a wireless communication system using flexible waveforms that may use portions of the spectrum that are not wide enough to accommodate normal waveforms. The flexible bandwidth carrier system may be generated with respect to the normal bandwidth carrier system by either augmenting the frame length of the flexible bandwidth carrier system or reducing its chip rate with respect to the normal bandwidth carrier system. In some embodiments, the flexible bandwidth carrier system may be generated with respect to a normal bandwidth carrier system by augmenting the frame length of the flexible bandwidth carrier system or reducing its bandwidth with respect to the normal bandwidth carrier system. Some embodiments increase the bandwidth of a flexible waveform by augmenting or expanding the chip rate of the flexible bandwidth carrier system. Some embodiments increase the bandwidth of a flexible waveform by reducing the frame length of the flexible bandwidth carrier system, or expanding its bandwidth.

The techniques described herein may be used for various wireless communication systems such as CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, SC-FDMA, peer-to-peer and other systems. The terms "system" and "network" are often used interchangeably. A CDMA system may implement wireless technologies such as CDMA2000, universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), etc. CDMA2000 covers IS-2000, IS-95 and IS-856 standards. IS-2000 versions 0 and a are commonly referred to as CDMA2000 1X, etc. IS-856 (TIA-856) IS commonly referred to as CDMA2000 1xev-DO, high Rate Packet Data (HRPD), and the like. UTRA includes Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) and other CDMA variants. TDMA systems may implement wireless technologies such as global system for mobile communications (GSM). OFDMA or OFDM systems may implement wireless technologies such as Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, flash-OFDM, etc. UTRA and E-UTRA are part of Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-advanced (LTE-A) are releases of UMTS that employ E-UTRA. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE, LTE-a and GSM are described in documents from an organization named "third generation partnership project" (3 GPP). CDMA2000 and UMB are described in documents from an organization named "third generation partnership project 2" (3 GPP 2). The techniques described herein may be used for the systems and wireless techniques mentioned above as well as other systems and wireless techniques.

The following description thus provides examples, which are not intended to limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the invention as set forth in the claims. Various changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elements without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Various embodiments may omit, replace, or add various procedures or components as desired. For example, the described methods may be performed in a different order than described, and various steps may be added, omitted, or combined. Furthermore, features described with respect to certain embodiments may be combined into other embodiments.

Referring first to fig. 1, a block diagram of an example of a wireless communication system 100 is depicted in accordance with various embodiments. The system 100 includes a base station 105, a user equipment 115, a base station controller 120, and a core network 130 (in some embodiments, the controller 120 may be integrated into the core network 130). The system 100 may support operation on multiple carriers (waveform signals of different frequencies). A multicarrier transmitter may transmit modulated signals on multiple carriers simultaneously. Each modulated signal may be a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) signal, a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) signal, a Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) signal, an Orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) signal, a single carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) signal, or the like. Each modulated signal may be transmitted on a different carrier and may carry control information (e.g., pilot signals), overhead information, data, etc. The system 100 may be a multi-carrier LTE network capable of efficiently allocating network resources.

The user equipment 115 may be any type of mobile station, user equipment, access terminal, subscriber unit, or user equipment. User devices 115 may include not only cellular telephones and wireless communication devices, but also Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), smart phones, other handheld devices, netbooks, notebook computers, and the like. Accordingly, the term user equipment (ue) should be construed broadly hereinafter, including the claims, to include any type of wireless or mobile communication device.

The base station 105 may communicate wirelessly with the user equipment 115 via a base station antenna. The base station 105 may be configured to: the communication with the user equipment 115 is via a plurality of carriers under the control of the controller 120. For example, in GSM, the controller 120 may be referred to as a Base Station Controller (BSC); in UMTS, the controller may be referred to as a Radio Network Controller (RNC). Each of the base station 105 sites may provide communication coverage for a respective geographic area. In some embodiments, the base station 105 may be referred to as a node B, an evolved node B (eNodeB), a home node B, and/or a home evolved node B. The coverage area for each base station 105 is identified herein as 110-a, 110-b, or 110-c. The coverage area of a base station may be partitioned into sectors (not shown, but the sectors comprise only a portion of the coverage area). The system 100 may include different types of base stations 105 (e.g., macro, micro, femto, and/or pico base stations).

Different aspects of the system 100 (e.g., the user equipment 115, the base station 105, the core network 130, and/or the controller 120) may be configured to: according to various embodiments, flexible bandwidth carriers and waveforms are used. For example, the system 100 shows a transmission 125 between the user equipment 115 and the base station 105. The transmission 125 may include: uplink and/or reverse link transmissions from the user equipment 115 to the base station 105, and/or downlink and/or forward link transmissions from the base station 105 to the user equipment 115. The transmission 125 may include flexible and/or normal waveforms. The normal waveform may also be referred to as a legacy and/or normal waveform.

Different aspects of the system 100 (e.g., the user equipment 115, the base station 105, the core network 130, and/or the controller 120) may be configured to: according to various embodiments, flexible bandwidths and waveforms are used. For example, different aspects of the system 100 may use spectral portions that are not wide enough to fit into normal waveforms. Devices such as user equipment 115, base station 105, core network 130, and/or controller 120 may be configured to: the chip rate and/or scaling factor is adjusted to generate and/or use flexible bandwidths and/or waveforms. Some aspects of system 100 may form a flexible subsystem (such as some user devices 115 and/or base stations 105) about which a flexible subsystem may be generated by augmenting or reducing the time or chip rate of the flexible bandwidth carrier system with respect to a common subsystem (which may be implemented using other user devices 115 and/or base stations 105). In some embodiments, a flexible subsystem may be generated with respect to a common subsystem by augmenting its frame length, or reducing its bandwidth. Some embodiments increase the bandwidth of the flexible waveform by augmenting or expanding the time or chip rate of the flexible subsystem. Some embodiments increase the bandwidth of the flexible waveform by reducing the frame length of the flexible subsystem, or expanding its bandwidth.

In some embodiments, different aspects of the system 100 (e.g., the user device 115) may be configured to: at UE 115, bandwidth information such as one or more bandwidth scaling factors N and/or bandwidths, which may also be referred to as scaling factors or flexible bandwidths, is determined. Different methods that may be used in determining bandwidth information include, but are not limited to: a random order N method, a delay order N method, a method of storing N values in a UE neighbor record, a spectrum measurement method, a spectrum calculation method, and/or a priori method. Information about the bandwidth scaling factor and/or bandwidth may be stored in other areas, including in multiple areas. Other methods may include: frequency versus bandwidth scaling factor and/or bandwidth mapping (e.g., in some search mechanism). In some cases, these different methods may be performed in parallel or in series. Furthermore, these different methods may also be combined. In some cases, information such as the flexible bandwidth itself may be stored instead of storing the bandwidth scaling factor for the flexible bandwidth. Some embodiments include: at the UE 115, the first set of received data is interpreted. At the UE, bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier is determined using the first set of received data. For example, one of the base stations 105 may use the flexible bandwidth carrier. The bandwidth information may include a second set of data that is different from the first set of data, wherein the second set of data includes the bandwidth information. Determining the bandwidth information at the UE 115 may facilitate mobility management with respect to a flexible bandwidth carrier that also uses the determined bandwidth information. The bandwidth information may include at least a bandwidth scaling factor or bandwidth associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier.

Some embodiments may include: a user equipment 115 and/or a base station 105 that can generate flexible waveforms and/or normal waveforms. Flexible waveforms may occupy less bandwidth than normal waveforms. For example, at the band edges, there may not be enough spectrum available to place a normal waveform. In some embodiments, for flexible waveforms, the frequency occupied by the waveform decreases over time (e.g., frame length) and thus flexible waveforms may be incorporated into a spectrum that is not wide enough to fit into a normal waveform. Furthermore, in some embodiments, flexible waveforms may also be generated by using scaling factors. In some embodiments, a flexible bandwidth carrier may be used to carry the flexible waveform. Other embodiments may generate flexible waveforms that adapt to a portion of the spectrum by varying the rate or chip rate (e.g., the spreading factor may be varied). Some embodiments may change the frequency of the process for changing the chip rate or using a scaling factor. Changing the frequency of the process may include: the interpolation rate, the interrupt rate, and/or the sampling rate are changed. In some embodiments, the chip rate may be changed by sampling, and/or by changing the frequency of the ADC, DAC, and/or off-line clock, or by filtering the scaling factor used. A frequency divider may be used to vary the frequency of at least one clock. In some embodiments, a chip rate divider (Dcr) may be used. In some embodiments, the scaling factor for the flexible bandwidth carrier may be referred to as a bandwidth scaling factor.

In some embodiments, the flexible system or waveform may be a partial system or waveform. For example, portions of the system and/or waveform may or may not change bandwidth. Part of the system or waveform may be flexible in that it may offer more possibilities than a normal system or waveform (e.g., an n=1 system). A common system or waveform may be referred to as a standard and/or conventional system or waveform.

Fig. 2A illustrates an example of a wireless communication system 200-a having a base station 105-a and a user device 115-a, wherein a flexible waveform 210-a is adapted to be insufficiently wide to accommodate a portion of the spectrum of a normal waveform 220-a, in accordance with various embodiments. System 200-a may be an example of system 100 of fig. 1. In some embodiments, the flexible waveform 210-a may overlap with a normal waveform 220-a that the base station 105-a and/or the user equipment 115-a can transmit. Some embodiments may also use multiple flexible waveforms 210. In some embodiments, another base station and/or user equipment (not shown) may transmit the normal waveform 220-a and/or the flexible waveform 210-a. Fig. 2B illustrates an example of a wireless communication system 200-B having a base station 105-B and a user device 115-B, wherein a flexible waveform 210-B is adapted for a portion of the spectrum located near an edge of one frequency band, which may be a guard band, where a normal waveform 220-B cannot be accommodated. System 200-b may be an example of system 100 of fig. 1.

In some embodiments, the user devices 115-a and/or 115-b are configured to: bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier, e.g., bandwidth scaling factor N and/or bandwidth information such as flexible bandwidth, is determined. Different methods that may be used in determining N include, but are not limited to: a random order N method, a delay order N method, a method of storing N values in a UE neighbor record, a spectrum measurement method, a spectrum calculation method, and/or a priori method. Some embodiments include: at the user device 115-a and/or 115-b, the first set of received data is interpreted. Bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may be determined at the UE using the first set of received data. The bandwidth information may include a second set of data that is different from the first set of data, wherein the second set of data includes the bandwidth information. Determining the bandwidth information at the user device 115-a and/or 115-b may facilitate mobility management with respect to a flexible bandwidth carrier that also uses the determined bandwidth information. The bandwidth information may include at least a bandwidth scaling factor or bandwidth associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier.

Fig. 3 illustrates a wireless communication system 300 having a base station 105-c and user equipment 115-c and 115-d, in accordance with various embodiments. Some embodiments include: at the user device 115-c and/or 115-d, the first set of received data is interpreted. The data may be provided to the user equipment 115-c and/or 115-d using the transmissions 305-a and/or 305-b between the user equipment 115-c and/or 115-d and the base station 105-c. Bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may be determined at the user device 115-c and/or 115-d using the first set of received data. The bandwidth information may include a second set of data that is different from the first set of data, wherein the second set of data includes the bandwidth information. Determining the bandwidth information at the UE may facilitate mobility management with respect to a flexible bandwidth carrier that also uses the determined bandwidth information. The bandwidth information may include at least a bandwidth scaling factor or bandwidth associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier.

The transmissions 305-a and/or 305-b between the user devices 115-c and/or 115-d and the base station 105-c may use flexible waveforms that may be generated to occupy less (or more) bandwidth than normal waveforms. For example, at one band edge, there may not be enough spectrum available to place a normal waveform. For flexible waveforms, the frequency occupied by the waveform decreases with time, so flexible waveforms can be incorporated into a spectrum that is not wide enough to fit into a normal waveform. In some embodiments, the flexible waveform may also be scaled by using a scaling factor N with respect to the normal waveform. The scaling factor N may be referred to as a bandwidth scaling factor. The bandwidth for the flexible bandwidth carrier may be scaled using a scaling factor N. The scaling factor N may take many different values including, but not limited to: integer values such as 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, etc. However, N is not necessarily an integer. In some cases, a chip rate divider (Dcr) may be used, which may have the same digital value as the bandwidth scaling factor. By way of example only, a flexible bandwidth system with n=2 may occupy half the bandwidth of a normal bandwidth system or a flexible bandwidth system with n=1.

Some embodiments include: at the user device 115-c and/or 115-d, the determined bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier is used to facilitate mobility management with respect to the flexible bandwidth carrier. Facilitating mobility management may include: movement between one flexible bandwidth carrier and another flexible bandwidth carrier of a plurality of flexible bandwidth carriers is facilitated, wherein the flexible bandwidth carriers use the same information, e.g., the same bandwidth scaling factor and/or the same flexible bandwidth. Facilitating mobility management may include: movement between one flexible bandwidth carrier and another flexible bandwidth carrier of a plurality of flexible bandwidth carriers is facilitated, wherein the flexible bandwidth carriers use different information, e.g., different bandwidth scaling factors and/or different flexible bandwidths. Facilitating mobility management may include: movement between one flexible bandwidth carrier of the plurality of flexible bandwidth carriers and a normal bandwidth carrier is facilitated.

At the user device 115-c and/or 115-d, determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: a random sequence of bandwidth scaling factors is used to determine bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier. Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: a predetermined sequence of bandwidth scaling factors is used to determine bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier. The predetermined sequence may include an increasing sequence of bandwidth scaling factors. The predetermined sequence may include: a sequence of bandwidth scaling factors starting with a current bandwidth scaling factor of a cell transmitting the first set of received data. Using a predetermined sequence of the bandwidth scaling factors, one or more cell searches and blind decoding may be used based on the bandwidth scaling factors from the predetermined sequence.

At the user device 115-c and/or 115-d, determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: using the stored bandwidth scaling factor. Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: one or more spectral measurements are used. Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: one or more spectral calculations are used.

At the user device 115-c and/or 115-d, determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: a priori information about one or more bandwidth scaling factors of the flexible bandwidth carrier is used. Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: a priori information about the probability of deploying one or more flexible bandwidth carriers with one or more bandwidth scaling factors in a given region is used. Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: the scale factor approach in combination with delay order uses a priori information about the probability of deploying one or more flexible bandwidth carriers with one or more bandwidth scale factors in a given region.

Some embodiments may use additional terminology. A new unit D may be used. Cell D is "dilated". The cell is unitless and has a value of N. Time may be discussed in terms of "time of expansion" in a flexible system. For example, a time slot of 10ms in normal time may be represented as 10Dms in flexible time (note: this holds even in normal time since n= 1:D has a value of 1 in normal time, so 10Dms =10 ms). In the time scale, "seconds of expansion" may be used instead of most "seconds".

As described above, a flexible waveform may be a waveform that occupies less or more bandwidth than a normal waveform. Thus, in a flexible bandwidth carrier system, the same number of symbols and bits can be transmitted over a longer duration than in a normal bandwidth system. This may result in time stretching, so that the slot duration, frame duration, etc. may be increased by a scaling factor (N). The scaling factor N may represent the ratio of the flexible Bandwidth (BW) to the normal bandwidth. Thus, the data rate in a flexible bandwidth system may be equal to the normal rate x 1/N and the delay may be equal to the normal delay x N. In general, flexible system channel bw=channel BW/N of the normal system. The Delay bandwidth product (delay×bw) may remain unchanged. Further, in some embodiments, the flexible waveform may be a waveform that occupies more bandwidth than a normal waveform.

Throughout this specification, the terms generic system, subsystem and/or waveform may be used to refer to: to systems, subsystems, and/or waveforms that use embodiments where the bandwidth scaling factor is equal to one (e.g., n=1) or a common or standard chip rate. These general systems, subsystems, and/or waveforms may also be referred to as standard and/or legacy systems, subsystems, and/or waveforms. Further, flexible systems, subsystems, and/or waveforms may be used to refer to: to systems, subsystems, and/or waveforms that use embodiments where the bandwidth scaling factor is not equal to one (e.g., n=2, 3, 4, 8, 1/2, 1/4, etc.). For N >1, or if the chip rate is reduced, the bandwidth of the waveform may be reduced. Some embodiments may use a bandwidth scaling factor or chip rate that increases the bandwidth. For example, if N <1, or if the chip rate increases, the waveform may be amplified to cover a bandwidth greater than the normal waveform. In some cases, flexible systems, subsystems, and/or waveforms may also be referred to as partial systems, subsystems, and/or waveforms. For example, portions of the system, subsystem, and/or waveform may or may not change bandwidth. Part of the system, subsystem or waveform is flexible in that it may offer more possibilities than a normal or standard system, subsystem or waveform (e.g., n=1 system).

Turning now to fig. 4, a block diagram 400 of a mobility management process is depicted in accordance with various embodiments. Some aspects of the block diagrams may be implemented, in whole or in part, using various wireless communication devices including, but not limited to: base station 105 as observed in fig. 1, 2, 3, 10 and/or 13; the device 900 as seen in fig. 9; the core network 130 and/or the controller 120 as observed in fig. 1 and/or fig. 10; user equipment 115 as observed in fig. 1, 2, 3, 10, 12 and/or 13; and/or device 1100 as observed in fig. 11. In block 405, the network may send assistance information to the UE to assist the UE in mobility management. For example, the network may send assistance information about neighboring available cells to the UE. At block 410, bandwidth information, such as one or more bandwidth scaling factors N or flexible bandwidths, may be determined at the UE. This may be part of the search process. For example, the UE may search for cells or carriers autonomously and/or with the aid of the network. These cells may be flexible bandwidth cells; these carriers may be flexible bandwidth carriers. In some cases, bandwidth scaling factors and/or flexible bandwidths associated with different flexible bandwidth cells or carriers may be transmitted from the network to the UE, e.g., through the base station. The UE may determine one or more bandwidth scaling factors and/or flexible bandwidths associated with one or more cells using various procedures as discussed herein without sending the value of N or the value of bandwidth to the UE. For example, multiple N hypotheses may be tried. At block 415, a setup management process may be performed. For example, the UE may develop various mobile cell settings for further handover and reselection, as shown in block 420.

Embodiments may include a variety of mobility management scenarios. For example, flexible bandwidth UEs may migrate using these mobility procedures according to different mobility scenarios. The flexible bandwidth UE may move from a flexible bandwidth carrier or cell with a bandwidth scaling factor of n=x to another flexible bandwidth carrier or cell with the same N. For example, the cells can be deployed on the same carrier frequency, but spaced apart PSCs. In some embodiments, the two cells may also be deployed on different carrier frequencies. The flexible bandwidth UE may move from a flexible bandwidth carrier or cell of n=x to another flexible bandwidth carrier or cell having a different N (n=y). The two cells may be deployed on different carrier frequencies. For example, a flexible bandwidth UE may move from a flexible bandwidth carrier or cell of n=x to a non-flexible or legacy cell (e.g., UMTS and/or GSM cell). Also, the UE may move from a non-flexible bandwidth carrier or cell or a legacy cell (e.g., UMTS and/or GSM) to a flexible bandwidth carrier or cell. The two cells may be deployed on different carrier frequencies. In some cases, the non-flexible bandwidth carrier or cell or legacy cell (e.g., UMTS and/or GSM cell) and the flexible bandwidth carrier or cell may be co-located with or deployed on different sites. In some embodiments, once the UE moves to a flexible bandwidth carrier or cell, it may perform a mobility procedure (e.g., send registration messages, location area updates, routing area updates, etc.), as is currently performed in a non-flexible network or legacy network (e.g., UMTS network), for example. While some of the above examples include UMTS and/or GSM cells, other embodiments may use other Radio Access Technologies (RATs). The flexible bandwidth system may be considered an extension (or mode) of the legacy RAT and, in some cases, also as a separate RAT.

Fig. 5 shows a table 500 including some different mobile scenarios, but some embodiments may use other scenarios. The handover/reselection scenario 510 illustrates several different possible scenarios in which a UE moves from one carrier to another, where the carriers may be flexible bandwidth carriers and/or normal (or legacy) bandwidth carriers. The deployment scenario 520 for each case reflects whether these deployment scenarios are intra-frequency handovers, inter-frequency handovers, and/or inter-RAT handovers. Aspects of table 500 may be implemented in whole or in part using various wireless communication devices including, but not limited to: base station 105 as observed in fig. 1, 2, 3, 10 and/or 13; the device 900 as seen in fig. 9; the core network 130 and/or the controller 120 as observed in fig. 1 and/or fig. 10; user equipment 115 as observed in fig. 1, 2, 3, 10, 12 and/or 13; and/or device 1100 as observed in fig. 11.

Some embodiments may include: for determining, at the UE, one or more bandwidth information such as a bandwidth scaling factor N and/or a flexible bandwidth. In some cases, the flexible bandwidth information (e.g., N) may not be transmitted. As a result, the UE must determine which N hypothesis to use when acquiring and decoding information on a cell, which may be a flexible bandwidth cell, but in some cases it may be normal bandwidth (i.e., n=1). Different methods that may be used in determining N include, but are not limited to: a random order N method, a delay order N method, a method of storing N values in a UE neighbor record, a spectrum measurement method, and/or a spectrum calculation method.

Some embodiments use a random order N method to determine N. For initial acquisition, when no information about flexible bandwidth scaling factor information is available for the UE, the UE may be configured with N that is always used during initial cell acquisition. In addition, the UE may also determine the value of N to use at power up by selecting the value of N randomly on the fly. In some cases, different hypotheses may be tried until successful detection. Some embodiments may use static or non-static lists of scaling factors. For inter-frequency neighbor cell search, the UE may be preconfigured with a particular N search order, or the UE may randomly select an order for searching N. In some embodiments, the UE may search for intra-frequency cell search using the same N as the UE uses on the serving cell (the cell to which the assistance information was sent).

Some embodiments use a delayed sequential N method to determine N. Fig. 6A shows a flow chart 600-a of a delay order N-based method for initial acquisition. For example, a delayed sequence of N methods may be used for initial acquisition. This example uses n=1, 2, 4 and 8, but in other cases other values may be used. When there is no a priori information available about how many carriers are full BW (n=1), half BW (n=2), quarter BW (n=4), etc., some embodiments assume that they are equiprobable (i.e., their weights are the same). In this case, progressively higher values of N are tried, which can minimize the acquisition delay with respect to conventional systems. For example, the flexible bandwidth UE may attempt an n=1 assumption, as observed in block 605. If it fails at block 610, then an n=2 assumption may be tried at block 615. If there is still a failure at block 620, then at block 625, an n=4 hypothesis may be tried, etc., as observed in blocks 630 and 635, until a system is acquired at block 640. The delay-sequential N method may be used for inter-frequency searching. Other embodiments may use other values of N than 1, 2, 4, or 8. Further, some embodiments may use parallel decoding or serial decoding. Fig. 6B shows a flow chart 600-B of a delay order N method for inter-frequency searching. For example, when there is no a priori information available about how many carriers are full BW (n=1), half BW (n=2), quarter BW (n=4), etc., some embodiments assume that they are equiprobable (i.e., their weights are the same). In this case, the flexible bandwidth UE may attempt a value of N for the current frequency at block 650. If it is successful at block 655, at block 660, system acquisition occurs. If it fails at block 655, the flexible bandwidth UE may attempt n=1 if it is not the current N value at block 665. If it fails at block 665, the flexible bandwidth UE may try a larger value of N, one after the other, at block 670 or 675. Other embodiments may use other values of N than 1, 2, 4, or 8. Further, some embodiments may use parallel decoding or serial decoding. The flow diagrams 600-a and/or 600-b may be implemented using various wireless communication devices including, but not limited to: user equipment 115 as observed in fig. 1, 2, 3, 10, 11 and/or 12; and/or as observed in fig. 9 for device 900.

Some embodiments use a method of storing N values in a UE neighbor record to determine N. Information about the bandwidth scaling factor may be stored in other areas, including in multiple areas. Other methods may include: mapping of frequency to bandwidth scaling factor (e.g., in some search mechanism). In some cases, information such as the flexible bandwidth itself may be stored instead of storing the bandwidth scaling factor for the flexible bandwidth. For example, the UE may keep a record of cells transmitted from the network and detected cells. Examples of such records may include, for example: a neighbor list maintained by the UE and/or a most recently used table (MRU). For example, the neighbor list may include: a list of cells transmitted from the network and identified (or unidentified), and cells not transmitted by the network but detected by the UE. For the identified and detected cells, their respective carrier frequencies and PSCs can be maintained in the record. The Most Recently Used (MRU) table may enable the UE to keep track of the most recently used systems (modes, bands and/or channels) on which the service is provided. The table may be ordered in order from the most recently used system to the least recently used system. In some embodiments, the flexible bandwidth UE now stores the N value of the frequency/carrier that the UE was previously camping on or identified. In some cases, there is only one N value at any frequency. Thus, hits for cell search and blind decoding may be only for U E to attempt acquisition of the cell/carrier for the first time. In a subsequent attempt, the UE may obtain the N value from the record, attempting to use the N value for acquisition. This method may be used alone or in combination with other N determination methods. In some cases, an operator may use different N even for the same frequency in different parts of its network (e.g., rural, suburban, urban). The UE may map the location to a different N detected by the UE. Furthermore, the UE may use different methods at different locations. Other information (e.g., PLMNs) may be used in order to use different databases or methods.

Some embodiments use a method of N estimation or determination from Bandwidth (BW) measurements of a UE. For example, the UE may be a good spectrum analyzer capable of measuring bandwidth while performing frequency scanning. To estimate the effective transmission bandwidth, the UE may measure energy corresponding to a possible maximum transmission bandwidth (e.g., a transmission bandwidth of n=1). After the frequency sweep, the UE may determine the bandwidth (e.g., absolute bandwidth or 3dB bandwidth, or equivalent bandwidth) of the waveform. On the basis of knowing the bandwidth, the UE can infer the value of N or the bandwidth. More efficiently, the spectrum bandwidth is determined by using an algorithm starting with the smallest possible bandwidth. It is expected that such an algorithm will work with full scan (power up or return to service) and list scan, where many carrier frequencies can be searched in the full scan case and few carrier frequencies are used in the list scan case. Such a spectrum measurement method may be used alone or in combination with other bandwidth information determination methods.

Some embodiments use spectral calculations to determine bandwidth information, e.g., a bandwidth scaling factor N and/or a flexible bandwidth. Another approach involving spectrum estimation is also possible when the UE has information about neighboring inter-frequency cells (e.g., carrier frequency and bandwidth). For example, by using the carrier spacing between two neighboring cells, the UE can calculate the most likely bandwidth of the target cell. For example, if the carrier spacing between the target cell and the neighboring cell is 5MHz, then the target cell is likely to be an n=1 flexible bandwidth cell, and if the spacing is 3.75MHz, then the target cell is likely to be an n=2 flexible bandwidth cell. Fig. 7 shows a spectrogram 700 reflecting both examples. For example, by using the carrier spacing 730 between two neighboring cells 710 and 720, the ue can calculate the most likely bandwidth of the target cell. For example, if the carrier spacing 730-a between the target cell 720-a and the neighboring cell 710-a is a particular value (e.g., 5 MHz), then the target cell is likely to be an n=1 flexible bandwidth cell. If the carrier spacing 730-b between the target cell 720-b and the neighbor cell 710-b is another value (e.g., 3.75 MHz), then the target cell 720-b is likely to be an n=2 flexible bandwidth cell. In the case where the adjacent carrier information is unknown, this method may be prone to errors. For example, a GSM cell or other flexible bandwidth cell may be located near the target cell, but this information is not available to the UE. The carrier spacing may be from a channel number. The spectrogram 700 may be used by a variety of wireless communication devices including, but not limited to: user equipment 115 as observed in fig. 1, 2, 3, 10, 11 and/or 12; and/or as observed in fig. 9 for device 900. Furthermore, the spectrum calculation method may also be combined with other methods to determine the bandwidth scaling factor N.

In some cases, there may be ambiguity with respect to the bandwidth scaling factor N. For example, if there is a 3.75MHz interval, one carrier may be considered to be n=1 and the other n=2, but it may not be known which is specifically, respectively. In some cases, the bandwidth of one of these carriers may be known. For example, if one carrier is known to be a full bandwidth carrier (e.g., n=1) and the channel spacing is 3.75MHz, then the bandwidth or bandwidth scaling factor of the other carrier may be assumed, e.g., the other carrier is considered to be a 1/2 bandwidth carrier (e.g., n=2).

Some embodiments may use ordering with a priori information to facilitate N determination. Without havingIn the case of a priori assistance information, all N values (p _i ) May be equally likely. Assuming that the probability of M is different from N, and the weights for each N, W _i May be equal, then W _i Can be expressed as:

W _i ＝p _i ＝1/M.

in the case of cells with some a priori information (e.g. 60% of the cells are n=1, i.e. p ₁ =0.6, 30% is n=8, i.e. p ₈ =0.3, 100% is n=4, i.e. p ₄ =0.1), weights may be assigned based on their likelihood, for example:

W _i ＝p _i wherein p is _i Not equally likely.

The flexible bandwidth UE may attempt to decode the N values in order of decreasing weight (e.g., due to W ₁ >W ₈ >W ₄ Thus try n=1 first, then n=8, then n=4). For inter-frequency searching, the flexible bandwidth UE may follow the same strategy as above. With other information (e.g., capture delay associated with each N), these weights can be amplified (e.g., W _i ＝p _i /d _i Wherein d is _i A capture delay that may be n=i; for i>j[d8～2*d ₄ and d ₄ ～2*d ₂ ]For d _i >d _j ). Additional information from other methods (e.g., spectral measurements and/or spectral calculations) may be used to amplify these weights.

Fig. 8 shows a communication diagram 800 illustrating an example of a UE moving from a UMTS cell (cell a) to a flexible bandwidth carrier or cell B (where n=4). When the UE is in idle mode on cell B, flexible bandwidth carriers or cell information (e.g., carrier frequency, primary Scrambling Code (PSC), etc.) may be sent to the UE on SIB 11, but not the N value for cell B. The UE may determine N using the spectrum estimation and store N information for cell B. The UE may determine N using the spectrum estimation and store N information for cell B. The UE may transition to a connected mode with cell a for a data or voice connection. In connected mode, if the link between the UE and the network experiences a decrease in signal strength, the network may provide the UE with a compressed gap to measure flexible bandwidth carriers or cell B. Since cell B has been identified in idle mode, N and cell timing are known, acquisition delay can be minimized. The UE may then measure the signal strength on the cell and add the cell to the virtual active set if a strong signal strength is detected on the cell. In case the signal strength of cell B is above the threshold, an inter-frequency event may be triggered so the UE sends a measurement report to the network. The network may command an inter-frequency handover when the network finds a flexible bandwidth carrier or cell B is more suitable for the UE than cell a. The UE may tune to a flexible bandwidth carrier or cell B and update its location (e.g., send a Routing Area Update (RAU) or a Location Area Update (LAU) to the network, as currently performed in a UMTS network). Aspects of communications diagram 800 may be implemented in whole or in part using various wireless communications devices including, but not limited to: base station 105 as observed in fig. 1, 2, 3, 11 and/or 12; the device 900 as seen in fig. 9; the core network 130 and/or the controller 120 as observed in fig. 1 and/or fig. 11; and/or user equipment 115 as observed in fig. 1, 2, 3, 10, 11, and/or 12.

Turning next to fig. 9, a block diagram of an apparatus 900 for wireless communication is depicted in accordance with various embodiments. The device 900 may be one example of one or more aspects of the user device 115 described with reference to fig. 1, 2, 3, 10, 11, and/or 12. In addition, device 900 may also be a processor. The device 900 may include a receiver module 905, a flexible bandwidth information determination module 910, and/or a transmitter module 915. Each of these components may be in communication with each other.

These components in device 900 may be implemented individually or collectively using one or more Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) that are adapted to perform some or all of these applicable functions in hardware. Alternatively, these functions may be performed by one or more other processing units (or cores) on one or more integrated circuits. In other embodiments, other types of integrated circuits (e.g., structured/platform ASICs, field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), and other semi-custom ICs) may be used, where these integrated circuits may be programmed in any manner known in the art. Furthermore, the functionality of each unit may also be implemented in whole or in part using instructions embodied in memory, formatted to be executed by one or more general or application-specific processors.

The flexible bandwidth information determination module 910 may be configured to: at a User Equipment (UE), a first set of received data is interpreted. The flexible bandwidth information determination module 910 may be configured to: at the UE, bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier is determined using the first set of received data. The bandwidth information may include a second set of data that is different from the first set of data, wherein the second set of data includes the bandwidth information. The bandwidth information may include at least: a bandwidth scaling factor or bandwidth associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier.

The flexible bandwidth information determination module 910 may be configured to: at the UE, the determined bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier is used to facilitate mobility management with respect to the flexible bandwidth carrier. Some embodiments of device 900 may include a mobility management module (not shown). Facilitating mobility management may include: movement between one or more flexible bandwidth carriers and another flexible bandwidth carrier is facilitated, wherein the flexible bandwidth carriers use the same bandwidth information, e.g., the same bandwidth scaling factor and/or the same flexible bandwidth. Facilitating mobility management may include: movement between one flexible bandwidth carrier and another flexible bandwidth carrier of a plurality of flexible bandwidth carriers is facilitated, wherein the flexible bandwidth carriers use different bandwidth information. Facilitating mobility management may include: movement between one flexible bandwidth carrier of the plurality of flexible bandwidth carriers and a normal bandwidth carrier is facilitated.

Determining bandwidth information associated with flexible bandwidth carriers using flexible bandwidth information determination module 910 may include: a random sequence of bandwidth scaling factors is used to determine bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier. Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: a predetermined sequence of bandwidth scaling factors is used to determine bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier. The predetermined sequence may include an increasing sequence of bandwidth scaling factors. The predetermined sequence may include: a sequence of bandwidth scaling factors starting with a current bandwidth scaling factor of a cell transmitting the first set of received data. For example, the sequence may be set by the manufacturer, by the operator, in the SIM, determined by the UE and stored for later use, etc. Using the predetermined sequence of bandwidth scaling factors, one or more cell searches and blind decoding of flexible bandwidth cells may be used based on the bandwidth scaling factors from the predetermined sequence.

Determining bandwidth information associated with flexible bandwidth carriers using flexible bandwidth information determination module 910 may include: using the stored bandwidth scaling factor. Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: one or more spectral measurements are used. Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: one or more spectral calculations are used.

Determining bandwidth information associated with flexible bandwidth carriers using flexible bandwidth information determination module 910 may include: a priori information about one or more bandwidth scaling factors of the flexible bandwidth carrier is used. Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: a priori information about the probability of deploying one or more flexible bandwidth carriers with one or more bandwidth scaling factors in a given region is used. Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: the scale factor approach in combination with delay order uses a priori information about the probability of deploying one or more flexible bandwidth carriers with one or more bandwidth scale factors in a given region. The a priori information may be sent at least to the UE, calculated and subsequently used at the UE, or provided to the UE through a SIM. The bandwidth information depends on the location.

In some embodiments, the receiver module 905 is configured to receive the first set of data from the serving cell and also receive control channel data from a portion of the carriers during cell search and acquisition. In some embodiments, the transmitter module is configured to send a message to the serving cell or to send its N and/or flexible bandwidth determined using the flexible bandwidth information determination module 910 to a flexible bandwidth operator. In some embodiments, flexible bandwidth information determination module 910 instructs receiver module 905 to receive different bandwidth information, e.g., a scaling factor N and/or flexible bandwidth. In some embodiments, the transmitter module 915 may transmit information regarding flexible waveforms, scaling factors, and/or flexible bandwidths from the device 900 to a base station or core network. In some embodiments, the transmitter module 915 may send information such as flexible waveforms, scaling factors, and/or flexible bandwidths to the base station or core network so that these devices or systems may use flexible waveforms.

Fig. 10 is a block diagram 1000 of a user equipment 115-e configured for wireless communication (which in some cases includes a configuration that facilitates mobility management) in accordance with various embodiments. The user device 115-e may have any of a variety of configurations, such as a personal computer (e.g., laptop computer, netbook computer, tablet computer, etc.), cellular telephone, PDA, digital Video Recorder (DVR), internet appliance, game console, electronic reader, etc. The user device 115-e may have an internal power source (not shown), such as a small battery, to facilitate mobile operation. In some embodiments, the user device 115-e may be the user device 115 of fig. 1, 2, 3, 11, and/or 12 and/or the device 900 of fig. 9. The user device 115-e may be a multi-mode user device. In some cases, the user device 115-e may be referred to as a wireless communication device.

User device 115-e may include antenna 1040, transceiver module 1050, memory 1080, and processor module 1070, which may communicate directly or indirectly with each other (e.g., via one or more buses). Transceiver module 1050 is configured to bi-directionally communicate with one or more networks via antenna 1040 and/or one or more wired or wireless links, as described above. For example, transceiver module 1050 may be configured to bi-directionally communicate with base station 105 of fig. 1, 2, 3, 11, and/or 12. The transceiver module 1050 may include: a modem configured to modulate packets, provide the modulated packets to antenna 1040 for transmission, and demodulate packets received from antenna 1040. Although the user device 115-e may include a single antenna, the user device 115-e typically has multiple antennas 1040 for multiple links.

Memory 1080 may include Random Access Memory (RAM) and Read Only Memory (ROM). Memory 1080 may store computer-readable code, computer-executable software code 1085 comprising instructions configured to: when executed, causes processor module 1070 to perform the various functions described herein (e.g., call processing, database management, message routing, etc.). Alternatively, the software code 1085 may not be directly executed by the processor module 1070, but rather is configured (e.g., when compiled and executed) to cause a computer to perform the functions described herein.

Processor module 1070 may include an intelligent hardware device, such as, for example

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A Central Processing Unit (CPU) such as a CPU, a microcontroller, an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), etc. is manufactured. Processor module 1070 may include a speech encoder (not shown) configured to receive audio through a microphone, convert the audio into packets (e.g., 30ms in length) representing the received audio, provide the packets of audio to transceiver module 1050, and provide an indication of whether the user is speaking. Alternatively, the vocoder may only provide packets to the transceiver module 1050 based on the packets themselves being provisioned or limited/suppressed that provide an indication of whether the user is speaking. / >

According to the architecture of fig. 10, the user equipment 115-e may also include a communication management module 1060. The communication management module 1060 may manage communications with other user devices 115. For example, the communication management module 1060 may be a component of the user device 115-e that communicates with some or all of the other components of the user device 115-e over a bus. Alternatively, the functionality of the communication management module 1060 may be implemented as a component of the transceiver module 1050, as a computer program product, and/or as one or more controller elements of the processor module 1070.

The components for the user device 115-e may be configured to implement aspects discussed above with respect to the device 900 of fig. 9, and so for brevity, are not repeated here. For example, bandwidth scaling factor determination module 910-a may be flexible bandwidth information determination module 910 of fig. 9. In addition, the user device 115-e may also include a mobility management module 1005 configured to provide mobility management, for example, as discussed above with reference to the device 900. In some cases, the mobility management module 1005 may work with the switching module 1025 or be part of the switching module 1025.

In addition, the user device 115-e may also include a spectrum identification module 1015. In some cases, spectrum identification module 1015 may be implemented as part of bandwidth scaling factor determination module 910-a. The spectrum identification module 1015 may be used to identify a spectrum that may be used for flexible waveforms. In some embodiments, the switching module 1025 may be used to perform a switching process of the user equipment 115-e from one base station to another. For example, the switching module 1025 may perform a switching procedure of the user equipment 115-e from one base station to another, where in this case a normal waveform is used between the user equipment 115-e and one of the base stations and a flexible waveform is used between the user equipment and the other base station. In some cases, intra-frequency handover may occur within the same base station; thus, the handover may be within a cell supported by the same base station. Scaling module 1010 may be used to scale and/or change the chip rate to generate flexible waveforms. In some embodiments, scaling module 1010 may be implemented as part of transceiver module 1050.

In some embodiments, transceiver module 1050 may transmit information regarding flexible waveforms and/or scaling factors from user device 115-e to a base station or core network in conjunction with antenna 1040, along with other possible components of user device 115-e. In addition, transceiver module 1050 may be used to receive messages from a network through a base station. In some embodiments, transceiver module 1050, in conjunction with antenna 1040, may transmit information, such as flexible waveforms and/or scaling factors, to a base station or core network, along with other possible components of user equipment 115-e, so that these devices or systems may use flexible waveforms.

Fig. 11 illustrates a block diagram 1100 of a communication system that can be configured for wireless communication, in accordance with various embodiments. The system 1100 may be an example of some aspects of the system 100 described in fig. 1, the system 200 of fig. 2, the system 300 of fig. 3, and/or the system 1200 of fig. 12. Base station 105-d may include an antenna 1145, a transceiver module 1150, a memory 1170, and a processor module 1165, which may communicate with each other directly or indirectly (e.g., via one or more buses). The transceiver module 1150 may be configured to bi-directionally communicate with the user devices 115-f (which may be multi-mode user devices) via the antenna 1145. In addition, transceiver module 1150 (and/or other components of base station 105-d) may also be configured to communicate bi-directionally with one or more networks. In some cases, the base station 105-d may communicate with the network 130-a and/or the controller 120-a via the network communication module 1175. The base station 105-d may be an example of an eNodeB base station, a home eNodeB base station, a node B base station, and/or a home node B base station. In some cases, the controller 120-a may be integrated into the base station 105-d, e.g., integrated with an eNodeB base station.

In addition, the base station 105-d may also communicate with other base stations 105 (e.g., base station 105-m and base station 105-n). Each of the base stations 105 may communicate with the user equipment 115-f using a different wireless communication technology (e.g., a different radio access technology). In some cases, base station 105-d may communicate with other base stations, such as 105-m and/or 105-n, using base station communication module 1115. In some embodiments, the base station communication module 1115 may provide an X2 interface in LTE wireless communication technology to provide communication between some of the base stations 105. In some embodiments, the base station 105-d may communicate with other base stations through the controller 120-a and/or the network 130-a.

Memory 1170 may include Random Access Memory (RAM) and Read Only Memory (ROM). Memory 1170 may also store computer readable code, computer executable software code 1171 comprising instructions configured to: when executed, causes the processor module 1165 to perform various functions described herein (e.g., call processing, database management, message routing, etc.). Alternatively, the software 1171 may not be directly executed by the processor module 1165, but rather is configured (e.g., when compiled and executed) to cause a computer to perform the functions described herein.

Processor module 1165 may include intelligent hardware devices such as, for example

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A Central Processing Unit (CPU) such as a CPU, a microcontroller, an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), etc. is manufactured. Processor module 1165 may include a speech encoder (not shown) configured to receive audio through a microphone, convert the audio into packets (e.g., 30ms in length) representing the received audio, provide the packets of audio to transceiver module 1150, and provide an indication of whether a user is speaking. Alternatively, the vocoder may only provide packets to the transceiver module 1150 on the basis that the packets themselves providing an indication of whether the user is speaking are being supplied or otherwise limited/suppressed.

The transceiver module 1150 may include: a modem configured to modulate packets, provide the modulated packets to antenna 1145 for transmission, and demodulate packets received from antenna 1145. While some examples of base station 105-d may include a single antenna 1145, base station 105-d preferably includes multiple antennas 1145 for multiple links that may support carrier aggregation. For example, one or more links may be used to support macro communications with the user device 115-f.

According to the architecture of fig. 11, the base station 105-d may also include a communication management module 1130. The communication management module 1130 may manage communications with other base stations 105. For example, the communication management module 1130 may be a component of the base station 105-d that communicates with some or all of the other components of the base station 105-d over a bus. Alternatively, the functionality of the communication management module 1130 may be implemented as a component of the transceiver module 1150, as a computer program product, and/or as one or more controller elements of the processor module 1165.

In some embodiments, the handover module 1125 may be used to perform a handover procedure of the user equipment 115-f from one base station 105 to another base station. For example, the handover module 1125 may perform a handover procedure of the user equipment 115-f from the base station 105-d to another base station, where in this case a normal waveform is used between the user equipment 115-f and one of the base stations and a flexible waveform is used between the user equipment and the other base station. In some embodiments, the handover module 1125 may be part of the controller 120-a instead of the base station 105-b, such as when the system 1100 is a UMTS system. In some cases, intra-frequency handover may occur within the same base station; thus, the handover may be within a cell supported by the same base station 105-d. Scaling module 1110 may be used to scale and/or change the chip rate to generate a flexible waveform. In some embodiments, scaling module 1110 may be implemented as part of transceiver 1150.

In some embodiments, transceiver module 1150, in conjunction with antenna 1145, may transmit information regarding flexible waveforms and/or bandwidth scaling factors from base station 105-d to user device 115-f, to other base stations 105-m/105-n, or to core network 130-a, along with other possible components of base station 105-d. In some embodiments, transceiver module 1150, in conjunction with antenna 1145, along with other possible components of base station 105-d, may transmit information, such as flexible waveforms and/or bandwidth scaling factors, to user device 115-f, to other base stations 105-m/105-n, or to core network 130-a, such that these devices or systems may use flexible waveforms. In addition, transceiver module 1050 may also be used to receive messages from a network through a base station.

Fig. 12 is a block diagram of a system 1200 including a base station 105-e and a user device 115-g, in accordance with various embodiments. The system 1200 may be an example of the system 100 of fig. 1, the system 200 of fig. 2, the system 300 of fig. 3, and/or the system 1100 of fig. 11. Base station 105-e may be equipped with antennas 1234-a through 1234-x and user equipment 115-g may be equipped with antennas 1252-a through 1252-n. At base station 105-e, transmit processor 1220 may receive data from a data source.

The transmit processor 1220 may process the data. Transmit processor 1220 may also generate reference symbols and cell-specific reference signals. A Transmit (TX) MIMO processor 1230 may spatially process (e.g., precode) data symbols, control symbols, and/or reference symbols if applicable, and provide output symbol streams to the transmit modulators 1232-a through 1232-x. Each transmit modulator 1232 may process a respective output symbol stream (e.g., for OFDM, etc.) to obtain a stream of output samples. Each transmit modulator 1232 may further process (e.g., convert to analog, amplify, filter, and upconvert) the output sample stream to obtain a Downlink (DL) signal. In one example, DL signals from modulators 1232-a through 1232-x may be transmitted via antennas 1234-a through 1234-x, respectively. Transmit processor 1220 may receive information from processor 1240. Processor 1240 may be configured to: generating flexible waveforms by varying chip rates and/or using bandwidth scaling factors; in some cases, this may be performed dynamically. Processor 1240 may also provide different alignment and/or offset processes. Processor 1240 may also use scaling and/or chip rate information to perform measurements on other subsystems, to perform handovers to other subsystems, etc. In some cases, the measurements and/or handovers may be coordinated at a separate controller than at the base station 105-d. Processor 1240 may reverse the effects of time stretching associated with the use of flexible bandwidth by parameter scaling. In some embodiments, processor 1240 may be implemented as part of a general purpose processor, transmit processor 1220, and/or receive processor 1238.

At the user equipment 115-g, user equipment antennas 1252-a through 1252-n may receive the DL signals from the base station 105-e and provide the received signals to demodulators 1254-a through 1254-n, respectively. Each demodulator 1254 may condition (e.g., filter, amplify, downconvert, and digitize) a respective received signal to obtain input samples. Each demodulator 1254 may further process the input samples (e.g., for OFDM, etc.) to obtain received symbols. MIMO detector 1256 may obtain received symbols from all demodulators 1254-a through 1254-n, perform MIMO detection on the received symbols, if any, and provide detected symbols. A receive processor 1258 may process (e.g., demodulate, deinterleave, and decode) the detected symbols, provide decoded data for the user device 115-g to a data output, and provide decoded control information to a processor 1280 or memory 1282.

On the Uplink (UL), at the user equipment 115-g, a transmit processor 1264 may receive data from a data source and process the data. In addition, transmit processor 1264 may also generate reference symbols for reference signals. The symbols from transmit processor 1264 may be precoded by a transmit MIMO processor 1266 if any, further processed by demodulators 1254-a through 1254-n (e.g., for SC-FDMA, etc.), and transmitted back to base station 105-e according to the transmission parameters received from base station 105-e. In addition, the transmit processor 1264 may be further configured to: generating flexible waveforms by varying chip rates and/or using bandwidth scaling factors; in some cases, this may be performed dynamically. A transmit processor 1264 may receive information from the processor 1280. Processor 1280 may provide for different alignment and/or offset procedures. In addition, processor 1280 may also use scaling and/or chip rate information to perform measurements on other subsystems, perform switching to other subsystems, perform reselection, and so forth. The processor 1280 may reverse the impact of time stretching associated with the use of flexible bandwidth by parameter scaling. At base station 105-e, UL signals from user equipment 115-g may be received by antennas 1234, processed by demodulators 1232, detected by a MIMO detector 1236 (if any), and further processed by a receive processor. Receive processor 1238 may provide decoded data to a data output and processor 1280. In some embodiments, the processor 1280 may be implemented as part of a general purpose processor, a transmit processor 1264, and/or a receiver processor 1258.

In some embodiments, the processor 1280 is configured for mobility management according to various embodiments. For example, the processor 1280 or other components of the user device 115-g may be configured to: at the user device 115-g, bandwidth information such as a bandwidth scaling factor and/or flexible bandwidth is determined. Different methods that may be used in determining bandwidth information include, but are not limited to: a random order bandwidth scaling factor method, a delayed order bandwidth scaling factor method, a method of storing bandwidth scaling factor values in a UE neighbor record, a spectrum measurement method, a spectrum calculation method, and/or a priori method. Some embodiments include: at a processor 1280, a first set of received data is interpreted. Processor 1280 may use the first set of received data to determine bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier. The bandwidth information may include a second set of data that is different from the first set of data, wherein the second set of data includes the bandwidth information. Determining the bandwidth information at the user equipment 115-g may facilitate mobility management with respect to flexible bandwidth carriers that may be used by the base station 105-e, wherein the base station 105-e may also use the determined bandwidth information.

The processor 1280 or other component of the user equipment 115-g may use the determined bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier to facilitate mobility management with respect to the flexible bandwidth carrier. Facilitating mobility management may include: movement between one flexible bandwidth carrier and another flexible bandwidth carrier of a plurality of flexible bandwidth carriers is facilitated, wherein the flexible bandwidth carriers use the same scaling factor. Facilitating mobility management may include: movement between one flexible bandwidth carrier and another flexible bandwidth carrier of a plurality of flexible bandwidth carriers is facilitated, wherein the flexible bandwidth carriers use different scaling factors. Facilitating mobility management may include: movement between one flexible bandwidth carrier of the plurality of flexible bandwidth carriers and a normal bandwidth carrier is facilitated.

Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier using processor 1280 or other components of user equipment 115-g may include: a random sequence of bandwidth scaling factors is used to determine bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier. Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: a predetermined sequence of bandwidth scaling factors is used to determine bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier. The predetermined sequence may include an increasing sequence of bandwidth scaling factors. The predetermined sequence may include: a sequence of bandwidth scaling factors starting with a current bandwidth scaling factor of a cell transmitting the first set of received data. Using the predetermined sequence of bandwidth scaling factors, one or more cell searches and blind decoding of flexible bandwidth cells may be used based on the bandwidth scaling factors from the predetermined sequence.

Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier using processor 1280 or other components of user equipment 115-g may include: using the stored bandwidth scaling factor. Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: one or more spectral measurements are used. Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: one or more spectral calculations are used.

Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier using processor 1280 or other components of user equipment 115-g may include: a priori information about one or more bandwidth scaling factors of the flexible bandwidth carrier is used. Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: a priori information about the probability of deploying one or more flexible bandwidth carriers with one or more bandwidth scaling factors in a given region is used. Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: the scale factor approach in combination with delay order uses a priori information about the probability of deploying one or more flexible bandwidth carriers with one or more bandwidth scale factors in a given region.

Turning to fig. 13A, a flow chart of a method 1300-a of wireless communication is provided in accordance with various embodiments. The method 1300-a may be implemented using a variety of wireless communication devices including, but not limited to: user equipment 115 as observed in fig. 1, 2, 3, 10, 11 and/or 12; and/or as observed in fig. 9 for device 900.

At block 1305, a first set of received data is interpreted at a User Equipment (UE). At block 1310, bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier is determined at the UE using the first set of received data. The bandwidth information may include a second set of data that is different from the data in the first set, wherein the second set of data includes the bandwidth information. The bandwidth information may include at least: a bandwidth scaling factor or bandwidth associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier.

Some embodiments include: at the UE, the determined bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier is used to facilitate mobility management with respect to the flexible bandwidth carrier. Facilitating mobility management may include: movement between one flexible bandwidth carrier and another flexible bandwidth carrier of a plurality of flexible bandwidth carriers is facilitated, wherein the flexible bandwidth carriers use the same bandwidth information. Facilitating mobility management may include: movement between one flexible bandwidth carrier and another flexible bandwidth carrier of a plurality of flexible bandwidth carriers is facilitated, wherein the flexible bandwidth carriers use different bandwidth information. Facilitating mobility management may include: movement between one flexible bandwidth carrier of the plurality of flexible bandwidth carriers and a normal bandwidth carrier is facilitated.

Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: a random sequence of bandwidth scaling factors is used to determine bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier. Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: a predetermined sequence of bandwidth scaling factors is used to determine bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier. The predetermined sequence may include an increasing sequence of bandwidth scaling factors. The predetermined sequence may include: a sequence of bandwidth scaling factors starting with a current bandwidth scaling factor of a cell transmitting the first set of received data. The predetermined sequence using the bandwidth scaling factor may be based on the bandwidth scaling factor from the predetermined sequence using one or more cell searches and blind decoding of flexible bandwidth cells. The bandwidth scaling factor sequence may be at least determined by the UE and stored for later use, set by the manufacturer, set by the operator, set in the SIM, etc. These techniques may use flexible bandwidth sequences instead of bandwidth scaling factor sequences.

Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: using the stored bandwidth scaling factor. Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: one or more spectral measurements are used. Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: one or more spectral calculations are used. The bandwidth information depends on the location.

Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: a priori information about one or more bandwidth scaling factors of the flexible bandwidth carrier is used. Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: a priori information about the probability of deploying one or more flexible bandwidth carriers with one or more bandwidth scaling factors in a given region is used. Determining bandwidth information associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier may include: the scale factor approach in combination with delay order uses a priori information about the probability of deploying one or more flexible bandwidth carriers with one or more bandwidth scale factors in a given region. The a priori information may be sent at least to the UE, calculated and subsequently used at the UE, or provided to the UE through a SIM.

Turning to fig. 13B, a flow chart of a method 1300-B of wireless communication is provided in accordance with various embodiments. The method 1300-b can be implemented using a variety of wireless communication devices including, but not limited to: user equipment 115 as observed in fig. 1, 2, 3, 10, 11 and/or 12; and/or as observed in fig. 9 for device 900. Method 1300-a may be an example of method 1300-B of fig. 13B.

At block 1305-a, a transmission related to a flexible bandwidth carrier is received at a user equipment without receiving a bandwidth scaling factor associated with the flexible bandwidth carrier. At block 1310-a, at the UE, the bandwidth scaling factor for the flexible bandwidth carrier is determined using the received transmission related to the flexible bandwidth carrier without receiving the bandwidth scaling factor. At block 1315, the determined bandwidth scaling factor is used at the UE to facilitate movement with respect to a flexible bandwidth carrier associated with the bandwidth scaling factor.

The detailed description set forth above in connection with the appended drawings describes exemplary embodiments that do not represent only those embodiments as may be practiced, nor that they fall within the scope of the appended claims. The term "exemplary" used throughout the specification means "serving as an example, instance, or illustration," but does not mean "preferred" or "advantageous over other embodiments. The detailed description includes specific details for providing a thorough understanding of the described technology. However, the techniques may be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well-known structures and components are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring the concepts of the described embodiments.

Information and signals may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout the above description may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.

A general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof, configured to perform the functions described herein may be used to implement or perform the various exemplary blocks and modules described in connection with the present disclosure. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

The functions described herein may be implemented in hardware, software executed by a processor, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented using software that is executed by a processor, these functions may be stored on a computer-readable medium or transmitted as one or more instructions or code on the computer-readable medium. Other examples and implementations are within the scope and spirit of the invention and the following claims. For example, due to the nature of software, the functions described above may be implemented using software executed by, for example, a processor, hardware, firmware, hardware wiring, or any combination thereof. Features that are used to implement the functions may also be physically distributed over several locations including being distributed as part of the functions implemented in different physical locations. Furthermore, as used herein (which includes the claims), the use of "or" in a list item ending with "at least one of" indicates a separate list, e.g., at least one of list "A, B or C" means: a or B or C or AB or AC or BC or ABC (i.e., a and B and C).

Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. By way of example, and not limitation, computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code means in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer, or a general purpose or special purpose processor. Further, any connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital Subscriber Line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of medium. Disk and disc, as used herein, includes Compact Disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital Versatile Disc (DVD), floppy disk and blu-ray disc where disks usually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce data optically with lasers. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

The previous description of the disclosure is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the present invention. Various modifications to the present invention will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other variations without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. The terms "example" or "exemplary" as used throughout this disclosure indicate an example or instance, and are not intended to imply or require that the example be so stated have any particular preference. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the examples and designs described herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

Claims (30)

1. A method for wireless communication, comprising:

receiving, at a User Equipment (UE), assistance information associated with a second bandwidth carrier conveyed over a first bandwidth carrier;

performing spectrum measurements on the second bandwidth carrier associated with the assistance information;

determining, at the UE, a scaling factor associated with the second bandwidth carrier based at least in part on the spectral measurements of the second bandwidth carrier associated with the assistance information; and

The communication is performed using a waveform generated based at least in part on the scaling factor.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first bandwidth carrier or the second bandwidth carrier is associated with a bandwidth of a subsystem.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the scaling factor comprises a ratio between a bandwidth associated with the first bandwidth carrier and a bandwidth associated with the second bandwidth carrier.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the sequence of scaling factors is used to determine the scaling factor.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the sequence of scaling factors comprises a random sequence of scaling factors.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the sequence of scaling factors comprises a predetermined sequence of scaling factors.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the predetermined sequence comprises a sequence of increasing scaling factors.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the predetermined sequence comprises a sequence of scaling factors starting with a current scaling factor of a cell transmitting the assistance information.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein using the predetermined sequence of scaling factors comprises:

One or more cell searches and blind decodes of cells associated with the second bandwidth carrier are used based on the scaling factor from the predetermined sequence.

10. The method of claim 4, wherein the sequence of scaling factors is determined at least by the UE and stored for subsequent use, set by a manufacturer, set by an operator, or set in a SIM.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein performing spectrum measurements on the second bandwidth carrier comprises:

performing a frequency sweep corresponding to the second bandwidth carrier; and

a bandwidth associated with the second bandwidth carrier is measured during the frequency sweep.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein measuring the bandwidth associated with the second bandwidth carrier comprises:

energy corresponding to a transmission bandwidth associated with the second bandwidth carrier is measured.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein performing spectrum measurements corresponding to the second bandwidth carrier comprises:

an interval in the frequency domain between the first bandwidth carrier and the second bandwidth carrier is determined, wherein determining the scaling factor is based at least in part on the interval.

14. A wireless communication system, the system comprising:

means for receiving, at a User Equipment (UE), assistance information associated with a second bandwidth carrier conveyed over a first bandwidth carrier;

means for performing a spectrum measurement of the second bandwidth carrier associated with the assistance information;

determining, at the UE, a scaling factor associated with the second bandwidth carrier based at least in part on the spectral measurement of the second bandwidth carrier associated with the assistance information; and

means for communicating using a waveform generated based at least in part on the scaling factor.

15. The wireless communication system of claim 14, wherein the first bandwidth carrier or the second bandwidth carrier is associated with a bandwidth of a subsystem.

16. The wireless communication system of claim 14, wherein the scaling factor comprises a ratio between a bandwidth associated with the first bandwidth carrier and a bandwidth associated with the second bandwidth carrier.

17. The wireless communication system of claim 14, further comprising:

the apparatus includes means for determining a scaling factor using a sequence of scaling factors.

18. The wireless communication system of claim 17, wherein the sequence of scaling factors comprises a random sequence of scaling factors.

19. The wireless communication system of claim 17, wherein the sequence of scaling factors comprises a predetermined sequence of scaling factors.

20. The wireless communication system of claim 19, wherein the predetermined sequence comprises a sequence of increasing scaling factors.

21. The wireless communication system of claim 19, wherein the predetermined sequence comprises a sequence of scaling factors starting with a current scaling factor of a cell transmitting the assistance information.

22. The wireless communication system of claim 19, wherein the means for using the predetermined sequence of scaling factors comprises:

means for using one or more cell searches and blind decoding of cells associated with the second bandwidth carrier based on the scaling factor from the predetermined sequence.

23. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing code for wireless communication, the code comprising instructions executable by a processor to:

receiving, at a User Equipment (UE), assistance information associated with a second bandwidth carrier conveyed over a first bandwidth carrier;

Performing spectrum measurements on the second bandwidth carrier associated with the assistance information;

determining, at the UE, a scaling factor associated with the second bandwidth carrier based at least in part on the spectral measurements of the second bandwidth carrier associated with the assistance information; and

the communication is performed using a waveform generated based at least in part on the scaling factor.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the first bandwidth carrier or the second bandwidth carrier is associated with a bandwidth of a subsystem.

25. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the scaling factor comprises a ratio between a bandwidth associated with the first bandwidth carrier and a bandwidth associated with the second bandwidth carrier.

26. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the code further comprises instructions executable by the processor to:

the sequence of scaling factors is used to determine the scaling factor.

27. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 26, wherein the sequence of scaling factors comprises a random sequence of scaling factors.

28. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the sequence of scaling factors comprises a predetermined sequence of scaling factors.

29. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein the predetermined sequence comprises a sequence of increasing scaling factors.

30. A wireless communications apparatus, comprising:

a processor;

a memory in electronic communication with the processor; and

instructions stored in the memory and when executed by the processor are operable to cause the wireless communication device to:

receiving, at the wireless communication device, assistance information associated with a second bandwidth carrier communicated over a first bandwidth carrier;

performing spectrum measurements on the second bandwidth carrier associated with the assistance information;

determining, at the wireless communication device, a scaling factor associated with the second bandwidth carrier based at least in part on the spectral measurement of the second bandwidth carrier associated with the assistance information; and

the communication is performed using a waveform generated based at least in part on the scaling factor.

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